Re: orgmode for many continuous tasks?

["Peter Neilson" <neilson@windstream.net>]

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 03:21:51 -0400, Mycroft Jones  
<mycroft@reactor-core.org> wrote:

> I'm wondering if org-mode can do this:
>
> I have many tasks.  Some are one off.  But many are tasks that will take  
> a
> period of time, days, weeks, months.  I need to schedule a bit of time  
> every
> day.  Over time I can complete the tasks by plugging away.  But I have  
> so many.
> Half hour chunks work for some tasks, 1 or 2 or 3 hour chunks work best  
> for others.
>
> 1) writing 3 different books
> 2) learning 2 different languages
> 3) 2 different types of exercise exercise
> 4) 3 different ongoing tasks at work
> 5) watching videos that friends send me
> 6) reading books on my night stand
> 7) various one-off tasks
> 8) scheduled items, where I have to do them at a scheduled time.
>
> So, for each broad category of task, there are subtasks.  So far, it  
> looks like
> orgmode is good.  But, what I'd like is to automatically generate  
> scheduling
> suggestions for the day.  For instance, if I've been putting too much  
> time into
> languages, then schedule more time for writing the books.  And if I've  
> focused
> too much on one book, remind me to put time into another book.  I'd like  
> the
> scheduler to be a sort of time-accounting system that suggests work for  
> the day
> in a way that balances the tree.
>
> Within each branch of the tree, I'd like the branches to be allocated  
> roughly
> equal time, over a period of weeks and months, on a day to day basis.
>
> Is there a simple workflow in orgmode that can do this?  I haven't done  
> elisp
> for 10 years, but I'm comfortable with it.  Would this be simple to  
> implement?
>
> Mycroft

Hmmm. I have similar problems, but on a somewhat more difficult level. A  
lot of my tasks are farm-related and are thus self-driven rather than  
org-mode-driven. For instance, two barn roofs need repair, and seeing them  
listed as TODO in an agenda does nothing to get started on them, or on the  
sub-tasks necessary to starting the work on the roofs. But when I look at  
the roofs, and thus am reminded of "* TODO Repair barn roofs", it's always  
when I'm already at work on something immediately more pressing.

But it gets worse! If I think of a task that needs to be done, and write  
it into one of my TODO lists, then I tend to ignore it. Adding it to the  
schedule dismisses it from any immediate concern, and (as I alluded  
before) much of my work is outside, on the farm, nowhere near my computer.  
It's almost like Ko-Ko's solution in G&S's operetta 'The Mikado':

   Ko-Ko: When Your Majesty says "Let a thing be done", it’s as good as  
done, practically it is done, because Your Majesty’s will is law. Your  
Majesty says "Kill a gentleman", and the gentleman is to be killed,  
consequently that gentleman is as good as dead, practically he is dead,  
and if he is dead, why not say so?
   The Mikado: I see. [Dramatic Pause] Nothing could possibly be  
more...satisfactory!

My problem with org mode itself thus becomes yet another action item (to  
be ignored):

* TODO Devise a way to project my agenda (in unavoidable brilliance) onto  
the side of the barn, or perhaps embroider it into the fleece of my sheep  
(who * TODO need to be shorn).

Plausible (or implausible) solutions to my problem or to Mycroft's are  
hereby solicited.